Size Matters

So during that flight I made this week, I told the instructor that I wouldn’t fly across Lake Michigan in a Cessna 172. And he chuckled at me!

I’m not a wimp. In that moment with the instructor, I forgot the exact reason why I didn’t fly over Lake Michigan. I just knew that it was too wide. He chuckled again when I said that.

“How you even see a Great Lake?”

“No.”

“You can’t see the other side when you stand on the shore.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

I could tell he was still doubtful.

At home Trevor had the answer I forgot – even at the flight ceiling of the Cessna (the highest you can fly it) there was a short point in the middle of Lake Michigan we couldn’t have glided to land if our engine had failed. No, gracias.

Being curious, I used overlapmaps.com to compare sizes. It puts one geographic location on top another at the same scale.

3 Puerto Ricos could fit in one Lake Michigan! I don’t know why the menu on the left says Erie. This is clearly Michigan. Anyone who roots for the Green Bay Packers knows that’s Green Bay!